Disaster looms at the summit - Part 2

The summit of Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, as seen from the Polish Traverse, elevation 21,000 feet, on Dec. 28. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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After summiting Argentina's Cerro Aconcagua on Dec. 28, the team begins to hike back to Camp 2 as a storm begins to blow in. Pictured, from left, are Carter Cox, of Irvine, and Alex Barber, of Orange. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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The Orange County team begins traversing the lower part of the Polish Glacier at 21,000 feet near the summit of Argentina's Cerro Aconcagua on Dec. 28. Pictured, from left, are Carter Cox, of Irvine, and Alex Barber, of Orange. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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The yellow tent of Cerro Aconcagua's Camp 2, elevation 19,300 feet in Argentina, bottom center, is where Alex Barber of Orange gave medical attention to Eric Norse, an American climber with another party who was showing symptoms of high altitude pulmonary edema. Eric Nourse, 41, and fellow climber David Reinhart, 42, died from Norse's expedition. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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Orange County climbers Alex Barber, left, of Orange, and Carter Cox, of Irvine, get ready to leave Camp 2 for the summit of Argentina's Cerro Aconcagua on Dec. 28. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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David Reinhart, left, and Greg Nourse on the summit of Denali in 2006. COURTESY GREG NOURSE

The summit of Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, as seen from the Polish Traverse, elevation 21,000 feet, on Dec. 28. DAVID VAN DER ROEST, PEAK EXPEDITIONS

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Day 2: O.C. climbers reach highest peak in the Americas but disaster looms

DAY 2: On Dec. 28, 2012, three O.C. climbers slept at Camp 2 on Argentina's Mt. Aconcagua, unaware that a team above them was in peril. Two men were roped to a wall of ice at 22,000 feet while a third was trying to climb down in the dark. Soon, all their paths would cross.

Nervous excitement.

That's what three Orange County climbers felt as night settled over Camp 2 on Mt. Aconcagua – the highest mountain in the western hemisphere.

They packed for the next morning's summit attempt. Ate freeze-dried beef stroganoff. About 8 p.m., they lay down.

Somewhere in there, someone dropped a water bottle. Somewhere in there, they talked about their families. And somewhere in there, Greg Nourse told his friend that at dawn he too would leave to seek help.

His toes had gone numb. His satellite phone couldn't get a signal. And his water had frozen.

"I wanted the sun to come up more than anything in my life," Greg Nourse says. "But the sun had to go the whole way around the Earth."

With the first light of day, he unclipped his rope, pulled on his pack and told his friend:

"Stay strong. I love you. I'm going to get help."

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At this same time, three Orange County friends shouldered their packs at Camp 2.

Dec. 29 had dawned, and finally they were going to the top of Aconcagua.

Due to injuries, they'd changed plans from a technical ascent up the Polish Shoulder to the mountain's easiest hike, known as Normal Route.

"I knew it was a scree flog all the way to the top," says Barber, 24, of Orange, referring to the loose rock called scree. "But I was excited to push the altitude barrier."

As they passed an empty tent, he recalled the climbers he'd seen the day before on the glacier. Were they alright?

His thoughts quickly returned to his own climb. He could no longer feel his toes.

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Greg Nourse couldn't go down the Polish Direct route – it was too steep. So, like his brother before him, he had to find help by climbing up to the summit of Aconcagua and descending an easier route to Camp 2.

"I could only take two or three steps, then I'd lean over my trekking poles panting for like 10 seconds," he says.

By 9 a.m. he stood near the summit and pulled out his satellite phone.

"I was an emotional wreck," he says. "I could barely talk."

Because of the time difference, Reinhart's wife, in Oregon, was sleeping.

"Dave is still alive," Greg Nourse told her recorder. "But there's no other good news."

He asked her to contact rangers below to arrange for a helicopter rescue.

Then, for the next two hours, he searched for the route down. It wasn't till the morning's first climbers arrived, that someone could show him the trail.

It made Greg Nourse wonder how his brother Eric could've found it at night.

Or if he'd found it at all.

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Shortly after noon, three best friends from Orange County stepped onto the summit of Aconcagua.

They posed for pictures and marveled. After 15 days of blizzards, gales, migraines and one aborted summit attempt, they'd reached the top of the Western Hemisphere.

"Sometimes it's tag-and-go on a summit," says Barber. "But this day we could've had a picnic on top."

For nearly an hour, they lingered in the sunshine at 22,841 feet, enjoying the vista above Argentina.

The world seemed perfect.

But storm clouds were gathering in the distance. Tragedy was unfolding around them. The mountain had bared her teeth.

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